New BCR Robot

amr_showcase_navigation.mp4

About

This repository contains a Gazebo and Isaac Sim simulation for a differential drive robot, equipped with an IMU, a depth camera, stereo camera and a 2D LiDAR. The primary contriution of this project is to support multiple ROS and Gazebo distros. Currently, the project supports the following versions -

1. ROS Noetic + Gazebo Classic 11 (branch ros1)
2. ROS2 Humble + Gazebo Classic 11 (branch ros2)
3. ROS2 Humble + Gazebo Fortress (branch ros2)
4. ROS2 Humble + Gazebo Harmonic (branch ros2)
5. ROS2 Humble + Isaac Sim (branch ros2)

Each of the following sections describes depedencies, build and run instructions for each of the above combinations

Noetic + Classic (Ubuntu 20.04)

Dependencies

In addition to ROS1 Noetic and Gazebo Classic installations, the dependencies can be installed with rosdep

# From the root directory of the workspace. This will install everything mentioned in package.xml
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y

Source Build

catkin build --packages-select bcr_bot

Binary Install

To install BCR bot in the binaries:

sudo apt-get install ros-noetic-bcr-bot

Run

To launch the robot in Gazebo,

roslaunch bcr_bot gazebo.launch

To view in rviz,

roslaunch bcr_bot rviz.launch

Configuration

The launch file accepts multiple launch arguments,

roslaunch bcr_bot gazebo.launch 
	camera_enabled:=True \
	two_d_lidar_enabled:=True \
	position_x:=0.0 \
	position_y:=0.0 \
	orientation_yaw:=0.0 \
	odometry_source:=world \
	world_file:=small_warehouse.world \
	robot_namespace:="bcr_bot"

Note: To use stereo_image_proc with the stereo images excute following command:

ROS_NAMESPACE=bcr_bot/stereo_camera rosrun stereo_image_proc stereo_image_proc

Humble + Classic (Ubuntu 22.04)

Dependencies

In addition to ROS2 Humble and Gazebo Classic installations, we need to manually install gazebo_ros_pkgs (since the same branch supports Classic and Fortress)

sudo apt-get install ros-humble-gazebo-ros-pkgs

Remainder of the dependencies can be installed with rosdep

# From the root directory of the workspace. This will install everything mentioned in package.xml
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y

Source Build

colcon build --packages-select bcr_bot

Binary Install

To install BCR bot in the binaries:

sudo apt-get install ros-humble-bcr-bot

Run

To launch the robot in Gazebo,

ros2 launch bcr_bot gazebo.launch.py

To view in rviz,

ros2 launch bcr_bot rviz.launch.py

Configuration

The launch file accepts multiple launch arguments,

ros2 launch bcr_bot gazebo.launch.py \
	camera_enabled:=True \
	two_d_lidar_enabled:=True \
	stereo_camera_enabled:=False \
	position_x:=0.0 \
	position_y:=0.0 \
	orientation_yaw:=0.0 \
	odometry_source:=world \
	world_file:=small_warehouse.sdf \
	robot_namespace:="bcr_bot"

Note: To use stereo_image_proc with the stereo images excute following command:

ros2 launch stereo_image_proc stereo_image_proc.launch.py left_namespace:=bcr_bot/stereo_camera/left right_namespace:=bcr_bot/stereo_camera/right

Humble + Fortress (Ubuntu 22.04)

Dependencies

In addition to ROS2 Humble and Gazebo Fortress installations, we need to manually install interfaces between ROS2 and Gazebo sim as follows,

sudo apt-get install ros-humble-ros-gz-sim ros-humble-ros-gz-bridge ros-humble-ros-gz-interfaces 

Remainder of the dependencies can be installed with rosdep

# From the root directory of the workspace. This will install everything mentioned in package.xml
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y

Source Build

colcon build --packages-select bcr_bot

Binary Install

To install BCR bot in the binaries:

sudo apt-get install ros-humble-bcr-bot

Run

To launch the robot in Gazebo,

ros2 launch bcr_bot ign.launch.py

To view in rviz,

ros2 launch bcr_bot rviz.launch.py

Configuration

The launch file accepts multiple launch arguments,

ros2 launch bcr_bot ign.launch.py \
	camera_enabled:=True \
	stereo_camera_enabled:=False \
	two_d_lidar_enabled:=True \
	position_x:=0.0 \
	position_y:=0.0  \
	orientation_yaw:=0.0 \
	odometry_source:=world \
	world_file:=small_warehouse.sdf

Note: To use stereo_image_proc with the stereo images excute following command:

ros2 launch stereo_image_proc stereo_image_proc.launch.py left_namespace:=bcr_bot/stereo_camera/left right_namespace:=bcr_bot/stereo_camera/right

Humble + Harmonic (Ubuntu 22.04)

Dependencies

In addition to ROS2 Humble and Gazebo Harmonic installations, we need to manually install interfaces between ROS2 and Gazebo sim as follows,

sudo apt-get install ros-humble-ros-gzharmonic

Remainder of the dependencies can be installed with rosdep

# From the root directory of the workspace. This will install everything mentioned in package.xml
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y

Build

colcon build --packages-select bcr_bot

Run

To launch the robot in Gazebo,

ros2 launch bcr_bot gz.launch.py

To view in rviz,

ros2 launch bcr_bot rviz.launch.py

Configuration

The launch file accepts multiple launch arguments,

ros2 launch bcr_bot gz.launch.py \
	camera_enabled:=True \
	stereo_camera_enabled:=False \
	two_d_lidar_enabled:=True \
	position_x:=0.0 \
	position_y:=0.0  \
	orientation_yaw:=0.0 \
	odometry_source:=world \
	world_file:=small_warehouse.sdf

Note:

1. To use stereo_image_proc with the stereo images excute following command:

ros2 launch stereo_image_proc stereo_image_proc.launch.py left_namespace:=bcr_bot/stereo_camera/left right_namespace:=bcr_bot/stereo_camera/right

2. Harmonic support is not available in the bcr_bot binaries yet.

Warning: gz-harmonic cannot be installed alongside gazebo-classic (eg. gazebo11) since both use the gz command line tool.

Humble + Isaac Sim (Ubuntu 22.04)

Dependencies

In addition to ROS2 Humble Isaac Sim installation with ROS2 extension is required. Remainder of bcr_bot specific dependencies can be installed with rosdep

# From the root directory of the workspace. This will install everything mentioned in package.xml
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y

Build

colcon build --packages-select bcr_bot

Run

To launch the robot in Isaac Sim:

• Open Isaac Sim and load the warehouse_scene.usd or scene.usd from here.
• Add in extra viewports for different camera views.
• Start the Simulation: Run the simulation directly within Isaac Sim.
• The following USDs are included in the package:
  • warehouse_scene.usd - Warehouse scene with a robot.
  • scene.usd - Scene with a robot in a empty world.
  • bcr_bot.usd - Robot model that can be imported into any scene.
  • ActionGraphFull.usd - Action graph for the robot to publish all the required topics.

To view in rviz:

ros2 launch bcr_bot rviz.launch.py

NOTE: The command to run mapping and navigation is common between all versions of gazebo and Isaac sim see here.

Mapping with SLAM Toolbox

SLAM Toolbox is an open-source package designed to map the environment using laser scans and odometry, generating a map for autonomous navigation.

NOTE: The command to run mapping is common between all versions of gazebo.

To start mapping:

ros2 launch bcr_bot mapping.launch.py

Use the teleop twist keyboard to control the robot and map the area:

ros2 run teleop_twist_keyboard teleop_twist_keyboard cmd_vel:=/bcr_bot/cmd_vel

To save the map:

cd src/bcr_bot/config
ros2 run nav2_map_server map_saver_cli -f bcr_map

Using Nav2 with bcr_bot

Nav2 is an open-source navigation package that enables a robot to navigate through an environment easily. It takes laser scan and odometry data, along with the map of the environment, as inputs.

NOTE: The command to run navigation is common between all versions of gazebo and Isaac sim.

To run Nav2 on bcr_bot:

ros2 launch bcr_bot nav2.launch.py

Simulation and Visualization

1. Gz Sim (Ignition Gazebo) (small_warehouse World):

2. Isaac Sim:

3. Rviz (Depth camera) (small_warehouse World):